Each year, six leading child psychologists are brought to the University of Minnesota to present papers on their programs of research. The papers are integrative in nature, providing the opportunity for the investigator to discuss his or her own material, previously published and/or unpublished, in the context of his or her own frame of reference. The papers are being published in an annual series of volumes, the Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology. In selecting participants, an attempt is made to reflect excellence and the diversity of contemporary areas of investigation within child psychology. Volumes are organized around significant themes in the field when research activities within given sub-areas of developmental studies warrant.